Albertville pediatrician sentenced to 10 years for possessing child pornography

WHNT Channel 19Sharpe was sentenced to 10 years in prison for possession of child pornographyHUNTSVILLE, AL -- A federal judge this morning sentenced a former Guntersville pediatrician to 10 years in prison for possession of child pornography, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI.

Michael Roy Sharpe, 64, of Albertville received the maximum sentence from U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler. Coogler also ordered Sharpe to serve 10 years supervised release after he completes the prison term.

According to court records, Sharpe confessed to the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners on Feb. 25, 2009, that he had had sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old girl. Sharpe was a pediatrician at the time and the girl was his patient, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

He had been communicating with her outside of a doctor/patient relationship since she was 14, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

He pleaded guilty in March to a one-count indictment that charged him with possessing a cellular phone containing images of child pornography.

During Sharpe's meeting with the Board of Medical Examiners, he allowed board members to look at his phone, which revealed sexually explicit text messages from the child and pornographic images of her, according to the news release.

Coogler said during the proceeding that if parents can't trust their children's pediatrician, they may stop taking them to the doctor, depriving them of needed care, the news release said.

Coogler also told Sharpe he believed Sharpe targeted the teenaged girl because he knew she was vulnerable. The girl had a history of intervention from the Department of Human Resources.

"It is hard to accept that someone who takes an oath to heal people and enters a field focused on caring for children would distort that into a means to exploit them," Vance said. "Too often, though, people who exploit or abuse children appear to the world as upstanding citizens and community leaders," she said. "We have, and will continue to prosecute people from all walks of life if they commit sex crimes against children."

Sharpe has been in jail since he was arrested in October of 2009, and will now be transferred to federal custody.